Monday, 4 March 2013

Life in Linz!


Week one - 25/02/2013 - 03/03/2013 
Personal Development

As I write my first blog entry, the words ‘Adventure’ and ‘Laughter’ seem fitting to sum up the events of the past few days. Warren Stewart, a fellow aspiring teacher and good friend of mine was to accompany me on our European venture where we would be spending the next four and a half months in Linz, the third largest city in Austria and the capital of the state of Upper Austria.

A daily walk along the Danube River

As I made my way to Dublin airport I experienced feelings of genuine excitement and to an extent some anxiety, after all without my Mother around who was going to cook for me? Wash and Iron my clothes? And most importantly get me out of bed in the morning? Lao Tzu famously said “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” and in our case the first step happened to be on German soil where we would spend an extremely enjoyable and entertaining evening in the Bavarian capital of Munich.

Although our time in Munich was short, I was fortunate enough to get a real insight into German culture. On the other hand after sharing a room for the night with Warren I was unfortunate to discover that my accomplice is prone to snoring, meaning the decision to get a single room in Linz was among the best I have made.

A truly picturesque and scenic train journey took us to Linz in under two hours. Here, we were greeted by an extremely tall and friendly Austrian man named Stefan who would turn out to be our student mentor for the next few months, this was great news. Stefan very kindly helped us with our luggage and drove us across the city to our residence. As we crossed the river Danube and headed for the city centre I was immediately impressed by some of the local architecture. The blend of classic and gothic with modern and futuristic buildings was really different to construction I had experienced before and was something that I was very much looking forward to exploring during my time here.

A popular shopping and hospitality area known as the Hauptplatz


Sledging on the mountain




The next few days were packed full of fun activities that were organized by our university, Pädagogische Hochschule (University of Education, Upper Austria). We were given the chance to meet and have breakfast with our fellow Erasmus students, go ice-skating, complete city-tours and try sledging which proved to be an extremely enjoyable experience. 




A great snap of the Erasmus group







It really was wonderful to be mixing with people from countries such as Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic and Finland to name but a few. The Erasmus Programme is a truly multi-cultural experience and allows you to become immersed in other cultures and hopefully make new friends along the way.



During my time in Linz I am determined to pick-up some of the language, after all "Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own."
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). Due to it’s geographical location Languages in Austria are varied and assorted in nature, with German being the official and the most widely spoken language of the land. It is therefore my aim to take this great opportunity to learn the language to the best of my ability.

As I conclude my first blog entry with a lovely cup of Turkish tea I can only hope the rest of my time here will be as gratifying and fulfilling as my first week.

Tschüs,

James




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